wintertime kiss
by lilieswho
Summary: Serenading the wrong girl's window. How badly can this go? A secret santa gift for Michelle (@reindeerjames). Merry Christmas, lovely! AU.


On a Saturday night, Lily enjoyed a really nice book and a glass of wine. It was her special night, where she would enjoy the quiet of her neighborhood and drown herself in any world she'd want to without being disturbed. Her flat mates were at a party, like usual. Her noisy neighbor has gone traveling and pretty much all the things that usually bothered her during the week decided to give her an early birthday present: peace.

The book she had chosen to read that night was Anna Karenina. She'd read that one a thousand times but never got tired of reading it again. Lily was so into her book that she didn't hear at first the little noise in her window. She kept reading on and on until some noise caught her attention.

"For god's sake, someone is dying out there." She mumbled, trying to return to her reading. The noise continued and she realized it was right down her window. Lily put her book aside and looked out at the street. There was a man, a black haired man, wearing a pair of glasses, knelt down on his knees, and singing with all strength of his lungs, Mariah Carrey's song All I want for Christmas is you. Around him, there were a lot of red rose petals in the snow and he was caring a large bouquet in his right hand. The redhead opened up her window to have a better look. She had no idea who that guy was.

"OI!" The guy stopped singing, looking confused. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"You're not Anne. Can you please call Anne for a moment?" He asked.

"Very well noticed." Lily pointed to the window next to hers. "Anne lives next door and she's out traveling."

"Oh. Shit."

"For someone in love, you sure know where your bae lives, don't you?" Lily mocked him, with pity. It wasn't the first time someone went looking for Anne. She was better known and the heart breaker girl in the building. Every now and then, some poor lad would come looking for her, with flowers, chocolates and a lot of presents, to please her, but she never was there when they went after her nor she'd care all they'd done for her. This one gave the situation a whole new level. "Do you want to come up and leave the flowers on her door?"

"Yeah" As he went towards the door, Lily buzzed him in. She opened her door and waited for him. He was a very tall man and a very handsome one too. No matter how much Lily hated Anne, she'd got to admit she knew how to pick guys. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He put the flowers on her neighbor's door and looked at Lily. She noticed how he was tremble and how disappointed he was about the circumstances. Not giving much thought, she spoke. "Would you like a cup of tea? You look cold."

"I'd love that." They entered Lily's flat and she began to prepare the beverage. "I'm James, by the way."

"Lily."

"So, Lily, do you offer a cup of tea to every lad that comes here looking after Anne?" She smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I'm guessing I'm not the first one. You got that pity look in your eyes."

"You're right. You're not the first one and, believe me, nor the last one to come after Anne." Lily smiled at him. "But you are the first one I invite over my apartment to drink some tea."

"I'm flattered." James answered, adjusting his scarf. "Am I an idiot to come over here and… well, do that scene out there?"

"No, that was actually really sweet of you." Lily picked up two mugs and put on the counter, going over the stove to look at her tea. "But you are an idiot to go after her. I really don't understand how she manages to have so many lovers at her feet."

"Wow, you really don't like her, huh?" He grabbed the mug and looked at the writing 'world's best bookworm' in a horrible handwriting. "Nice mug."

"Not liking is the kind way to say it." She poured the tea on both mugs. "Oh, that silly little thing. My drunk friends gave me as a present last month, since I don't go out to them to their parties. There you go."

They drank the tea quietly, just looking at each other. It was a nice silence, a really comfort one, Lily thought. She had no idea why she'd let him come in to her flat. If it was any other pathetic guy looking for Anne, she wouldn't ever let him in the building, so what was so different about this situation? Perhaps it was about the fact that he was serenading to the wrong window.

After a few minutes, James decided to go. After apologizing one more time, he went home, leaving Lily alone one more time. She tried to go back to her book, but her mind didn't seem to leave the dark haired man that just left her place.

A few days later, James was walking over the park with his dog. It was a nice Thursday afternoon and the snow had finally stopped to fall down. The sun was starting to show up, still weak of heat, but enough to make people starting to go out of their houses. The snow was thin and perfect for walking his dog to the park next to his place.

He hadn't come back to Anne's house since the serenade fiasco. He'd love to go there once more, not to see the girl he'd once fallen, but to see one more time the pretty ginger girl who offered him tea. As much as he wanted to see her again, he couldn't find any excuse to go there again. He'd no idea if she had found him interesting; probably not giving the situation he was in. What the hell was he thinking?

James got so distracted that he didn't realized his dog had just escape from his leash. He was still thinking about Lily when an old woman came up to him.

"Oh dear, I think your dog ran away." She said putting a hand on his shoulders.

"What?" He looked over the leashed and sighted. "Did you see where he went? It's a big black dog."

"A black dog?" A man who was passing by asked. James nodded. "There's one with a lady right over there. It's not wearing a leash, maybe that's your dog."

"Thank you!" James ran over the directions the man had instructed and began to look for his dog. Apparently every single person in the world had decided to bring their dogs to a walk in the park that afternoon. It was hard to locate a lady with his dog when there were about twenty all over there. He decided to call him and see if he'd answer. "SNUFFLES."

A large bark came from behind him and as soon as James turns around to meet him, he was already on the floor, with Snuffles on top of him, licking his face.

"Snuffles is a horrible name for a dog, just so you know." A sweet voice spoke next to him. With his glasses all moisten, he couldn't quite see who was talking, just a big red blurred in front of him. "But I guess you do not make smart choices, given your previous judgement."

"Oh, look if it isn't the world's best bookworm!" James stood up and cleaned his glasses in his shirt. He put them back just in time to see her cheeks gets red. "It's not my dog, it's my best mate's. He's out of town, so I got to take him for a walk sometimes."

"Well, he's adorable." Lily was fetching him, smiling. She looked up at James. "So, are you still serenading the wrong girl or all you want for Christmas is still me?"

"If it's creepy enough, I'll ask for your phone number instead."

Lily stopped fetching Snuffles and her entire face got crimson. She wasn't expecting that, at all. He was one of Anne's creepy guys, for god's sake. But, au contraire of the other's weirdos, he hasn't returned. Yes, she was out of town, but normally when that happened, they'd usually leave presents all over the building. Nothing from him came. Lily stayed quiet for a long time, starring at him, that James just got embarrassed about it.

"Or, you know, you can pretend that you didn't hear this and I'll be on my way with Snuffles and look online how to successfully hit on a girl."

"Oh, oh no. I'm sorry, I was just… thinking." She stood up and adjusted her hood. "Well… Yeah, okay. You can have my number." She took a piece of paper on her bag and wrote her number, giving it to o him. "I gotta go. See you around, lover boy. Bye Snuffles."

She winked him goodbye and left.

James was beyond nervous. He'd never been that nervous for a date before, not even with Anne. He looked over Lily's building, for almost ten minutes now, and finally rang the bell.

"Who's there?"

"Uh… James… This is Lily's flat, right? Have I rang the wrong bell?" He asked confused. The girl laughed and buzzed him in. Remembering her doors number, he went upstairs and knocked. A blonde girl opened with a big smile. "Oh... Uh…"

"She was not lying. Dorcas, he's real!" She yelled and soon enough, a black girl came and smiled. "He's dashing."

"Oh dear God, Marlene, behave yourself." Dorcas smiled. "Hi, why don't you come in? Lily will be ready in a second."

James entered and cleared his throat, rather uncomfortable. The girls were just standing there, looking at him. Marlene was looking at him, analyzing and nodding in agreement. Dorcas, au contraire, was smiling excitedly.

"So, you're the singer. I am dying to hear that voice."

"Okay, ladies, enough torturing the guy." Lily said leaving her bedroom. "It's my job to mock him." Lily looked at James and smiled. "Hello, lover boy."

All that James could think it was that Lily looked incredibly gorgeous. She wasn't wearing anything special, just a simple winter dress and boots, but she looked beautiful. His hands were immediately through his hair, like he always did when he was nervous.

"Hey… Lily. Shall we?"

"We shall." She smiled and looked to her friends. "Don't wait up, girls."

"So, where are we going?" They were walking for a while now, mostly quiet, since James were practically starring at his phone, for directions to the restaurant. "Assuming we get there."

"Uh… I don't really know. My mate said that this place was great and insisted me to come. I guess we turn left now…" James said looking around. "Okay, this is the street. We're at 255 and looking for… 499. Shit. Sorry."

"I don't mind, I like to walk." They took a few more steps looking at the numbers. "So, you do know that you can say no to your mate about where we're going, right? I do enjoy a man that doesn't need a babysitter."

"Ha-ha, very funny. He's not my babysitter, he's just… Sirius. It's really hard to say no to him, ok? He's very persuasive… Especially with the ladies."

Lily laughed out loud. "Oh my God, did he ask you to say that?"

James blushed and smiled, nodding. They both laughed and continued to look for the place. After a few minutes, James caught the number on a little building around the corner. The place was simple, very cheerful and colorful. James was surprised. He expected something more… romantic. He looked over to see Lily's expression. She didn't seem to mind where they were, but rather amused.

"Excuse, do you two have…" A teenager came to welcome them. "Wait. You're James Potter?"

"Yeah… How did you know?" James asked confused.

"Sirius called letting me know you're coming. Here, follow me." She started to walk and the couple followed her, until she stopped on their very last table. After helping Lily sit and sitting across the table from her, the girl continued to talk. "So, here's how it'll work. You order and you get a mug with paints so you can do your own art and take it home after you're done. I'll go get the menus."

They stared at each other for a moment. And burst in laughter.

"Oh my God, I'll kill Sirius." He got his phone and looked at Lily. "Just give me a sec, I'll look for some place nice for us to go."

"No, don't. Let's stay here, it'll be fun." She grabbed one of the mugs on the table. "I bet you I kick your ass on painting."

James opened a large smile. "Oh, it's on."

They'd already eaten and painted about four mugs by that time, truly competing against each other. Lily had won three out of the four and they decided to make that fifth the last one. Whoever won, was the hero of the night. While painting, they talked a lot about their interests, such as books, plans for the future and career.

"So, it's just those friends that live with you?" James asked looking at her. She was concentrated in some part of her painting that it took a moment for her to answer.

"Yeah. I've known Marlene since we were… I dunno, eleven? Twelve? Something like that." She smiled. "Dorcas I just know for four years, we met in high school. Both troublemakers, you know?"

James snorted.

"I do know. Me and my mates are quite the same, if not worse." He said. "Once, Sirius and Peter got stuck in the principal's office in the middle of the night trying to steal my Game boy. Remus and I had to pull the fire alarm bell so everybody could leave the building for us to rescue them." He smiled nostalgic. "Oh, to be 12…"

They laughed and after a while, both had finished their mugs. Lily raised an eyebrow. "Ready?" He nodded. "One, two… three!"

They both turned the mugs for the other see it. Lily draw a beautiful portrait of Snuffles on top of a man and with a round glasses in his mouth. James laughed rather impressed. She was an amazing drawer. James had made a caricature of Lily smiling. Lily opened her mouth, rather surprised.

"Oh my God, where was that talent three mugs ago?" She took his in her hands and examined. "This is gorgeous, James!"

"Just living up to my muse." Lily blushed, but smiled anyway. "So, who's the winner?"

"Oh, don't boast, please. You clearly won." The redhead looked to her watch and her smile disappeared from her lips. "Oh Jesus, we need to go. I have early classes tomorrow and I'm really behind it. I'm sorry."

"Nah, that's okay. Let's go, I'll take you home."

They walked to her place, making small talk holding each other hands. Lily was glad that she agreed to go out with him. She had had the best date and part of her didn't want to end up the night. Talking to him was easy and she found adorable how he got uncomfortable meeting the girls and how he blushed easily when she touched him.

"So, here we are." She said, stopping in front of her building doors. She looked at him. "I really had a nice time."

"Yeah, me too. Here, I want you to have this." He gave her his Lily mug. "So when you invite strangers over to your place to have tea, you can give something a little more sophisticated."

"Oh, I thank you. Now, every strange man can drink from my beautifully draw face." She laughed. James smiled and took a step towards her. She looked at him. "Hi."

"Hi." They stared at each other for a moment until Lily close the space between them with a kiss. They kissed for a long time, only separating when someone in a car honked to them. "I really gotta go in." Lily said. "Thank you for the mug, the date…and the kiss."

"I hope we can do this another time." He said. "Maybe somewhere with a real meat and candles…perhaps a drink."

"I'd love to." She kissed him one more time and entered the building. She couldn't wait for their next date.


End file.
